Recently the AoE2 player Spirit of the Law posted a video with concepts from the Age of Empires 2 Alpha that never made it into the game.
Some parts are actually in Age of Mythology, and some are in Age of Empires 4.
Age of Empires 4 has spearmen that brace, knights that charge, (slav) monks that have an area effect.
In Age of Mythology there is a scenario called Peloponessian Wars, its a geographical map of Greece and its played as a supremacy. In AoM the settlements/towncenters have fixed positions and in this scenario there are often added Gaia units that defend the towncenter. I’ve made similar scenarios of other regions and copied this theme on occassion because it was very interesting and added to the game.
Honestly i really like shieldwall it gives an add to infantry, imagine microing your archers from the other side and they do hit them.
The greekfire ability to hit units inside the ship or trade gold is really interesting. Just as it would to have a bombard cannon or trebuchet and your garrisonned units in a tower or castle take damage.
Age of Mythology has ‘ramming ships’ but they dont literaly ram, instead they have an arm to hit the enemy ship.
I’m aso a big fan of grapple and board, it gives a very realistic dynamic to sea battes, like the mod you recently referred to as AoE1 in AoE2 with a variety of new ships which had similar abilities.
Such an agressive gaia would make military in the archaic age interesting, but settlements are only available in the classical age so maybe not.
I really like the raider civilizations it reminds me of the horde factions in Rome Total War. And thus i really miss the Pillage ability, im glad to see it in AoE4 with mongols although its behind technology.
I do miss an ability for scout cavalry to steal gold from tradecarts haha. Or steal resources from villagers. Then the concept of hunting with scouts as the Rus in AoE4 is also a very interesting system.
Instead of walls blocking projectiles, AoE4 with archers on the wall is really a refreshment. That has always been the biggest miss in AoE2. Instead with walls blocking projectiles, walling in your opponent and having crossbowmen behind them is super OP. In AoE4 we see a similar trend with Delhi building stone walls with towers and sending crossbowmen in to do their job.
I’ve seen Gaia regeneration in some scenarios in AoE2 and AoM it’s a really interesting system, but it does make games last a lot lot longer. Back in the days in AoM we had really long games, todays AoE2 society is very different from that.
Forced treaty is really dark, in Rome2 i would always abuse this by gaining their trust and then turn back to enemy and overrun them and then build a base and mine their resources. In Aoe2 that would have been even worst because you gain 50% of their resources and control over their units thats bizar lol.
I would love to hear your opinions or ideas about these subjects.
Greets Nick_The_Hun